Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42358902›Full record

ArticlePublic health in practice (Oxford, England)2026

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on surgical cancer care disparities according to socioeconomic status.

R M G van Vuren, R van den Hoek, S Kruijff, D J Heineman, N F M Kok, R J Swijnenburg, M R Visser, S S Gisbertz, T E Hendriks, J de Vos-Geelen and 2 more

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In one paragraph

Article in Public health in practice (Oxford, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

R M G van VurenThe Netherlands Cancer Institute, Department of Surgical Oncology, the Netherlands.
R van den HoekDutch Institute for Clinical Auditing, the Netherlands.
S KruijffAcademic Medical Centre Groningen, Department of Surgery, the Netherlands.
D J HeinemanAmsterdam UMC, Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, the Netherlands.
N F M KokThe Netherlands Cancer Institute, Department of Surgical Oncology, the Netherlands.
R J SwijnenburgAmsterdam UMC location University of Amsterdam, Department of Surgery, the Netherlands.
M R VisserDutch Institute for Clinical Auditing, the Netherlands.
S S GisbertzCancer Centre Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, VU University Medical Center, the Netherlands.
T E HendriksDutch Institute for Clinical Auditing, the Netherlands.
J de Vos-GeelenMaastricht University Medical Centre, Div. Medical Oncology, Dept. Internal Medicine, GROW - Research Institute for Oncology & Reproduction, the Netherlands.
W Y van der PlasAmsterdam UMC location University of Amsterdam, Department of Surgery, the Netherlands.
M W J M WoutersThe Netherlands Cancer Institute, Department of Surgical Oncology, the Netherlands.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to examine whether healthcare scarcity during the COVID-19 pandemic amplified prior socioeconomic disparities in access to Dutch surgical cancer care. Study design: Retrospective population-based cohort study. Methods: Patients who underwent surgery for lung, oesophageal, gastric, pancreatic, or malignant liver tumours were identified in national quality of care registries. A pandemic cohort (15-03-2020 to 24-04-2022) was compared with a pre-pandemic cohort (2018-2019). Socioeconomic status (SES) was based on postal-code-level scores. Primary outcome was the difference in SES distribution between cohorts. Secondary outcomes were time to treatment and likelihood of stage III disease. Multivariate logistic regression incorporated all variables associated with tumour stage. Results: A total of 29,792 procedures were analysed (14,208 pandemic; 15,584 pre-pandemic). SES distribution was similar between periods (median 0.057 vs 0.059, p = 0.7). Median time to treatment was 27 days in both cohorts (p = 0.10) with no SES-related differences. Rates of surgery for stage III were comparable across SES groups. Adjusted analyses showed no association between SES and tumour stage in either cohort (pandemic aOR 0.88, 95% CI 0.74-1.03). Conclusions: Despite pressure on healthcare during the pandemic, access to surgical cancer care remained equitable across SES groups in the Netherlands.

Indexed as

COVID-19 pandemicHealthcare scarcityPopulation-basedSocioeconomic statusSurgical oncology

Identifiers

PMID42358902
PMCPMC13292773

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.